Adjustable material-delivering device.



No. 670,0l4 Patented Mar. l9, I90l.

. J. B. DOBSON.

ADJUSTABLE MATERIAL DELIVERING DEVICE.

(Ap plication filed Oct. 26. 1 900.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet l.

WITNESSES f VENTOH Jzmesjiflobson I I p I ATTOHNEX.

N0. 670,0I4. Patented Mar. I9, I90l.

J. B. DDBSON. I

ADJUSTABLE MATERIAL DELIVERING DEVICE.

(Application filed Oct. 26, 1900.)

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

" WITNESSES //v vawon 6 I Jame'sfl fiobson JAMES B. -DOBSON,.OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

ADJUSTABLE MATERIAL==DEL|VERING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 670,014, dated March 19, 1901.

Application filed October 26, 1900. Serial No. 34,494. (No models To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be itknown that I, J AMES B. DoBsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Adjustable Material-Delivering Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

In many situations it is desirable that material should be delivered or fed with regularity from one device, machine, or receptacle to another and at the same time provision be made for varying the delivery or feed as required, so that when circumstances require a comparatively small amount that may be provided for and when circumstances require a larger amount that also may be provided for. My machine accomplishes the result indicated, as will hereinafter appear.

Said invention is also adapted, when the delivering mechanism is duplicated or multiplied, to a further use. It frequently happens that various grades of material are capable of more advantageous use by being mixed together in certain proportions, and this may be easily accomplished by means of my invention by arranging several of the delivery devices to work in conjunction with each other, each of which shall receive a different grade of material, while all discharge either into a common receptacle or into conveying devices leading to a common receptacle or point. In such a case each one of the delivering devices is adjusted to deliver j net that .proportion of the material which is conveyed thereto which it is desired shall enter into the mixture being formed, and as the capacity of each delivering device is adjustable the mixture can be varied from time to time as requirements vary.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which are made a part hereof, and on which similar reference characters indicate similar parts, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a single machine embodying my said invention with that portion of the casing which constitutes the cover removed; Fig. 2, a similar View of a multiple machine, showing four such delivering devices; Fig. 3, a longitudinal vertical sectional View of the machine, and Fi 4 a top or plan view showing the delivery device in plan.

This machine has been designed especially for use in tlouring-mills and has been used particularly for the purposes of mixing wheat -or other grain and various 'classes of grain products; but it may of course be used wherever a machine for mixing various classes of material is desired.

The delivery device is mounted in a casing 1, having an ingress spout or opening 2 and an egress spout or opening 3. Below theingress-spout 2 and behind the delivery device is a space which serves as a receptacle for the incoming material, from which the delivery device takes it as the operation proceeds. A vertically-moving gate L is provided, which extends down in front of the ingress-spout and may be raised or lowered at will, according to the class of material being handled and the rapidity with which it is desired it shall reach the delivery device. This may be held at any point of elevation desired by any suitable means, such as a rack-bar 5 on the face of said gate and a pawl 63, mounted on the casing in proper relation thereto.

An ordinary conveyor 7 is shown arranged below the egress-opening in the multiple machine illdstrated in Fig. 2, and such a conveyer may or may not be employed with either style of machine. It is of course necessary where multiple machines are employed for the purpose of mixing various materials or grades of material that some conveying device or devices should lead from the separate delivery devices to a common point or receptacle. I may here remark that while I have illustrated in Fig. 2 several of these devices arranged in close proximity to each other in a common frame this is not indispensably necessary, as the delivery devices may be arranged considerably apart from each other and still by means of suitable conveying devices lead to a common point and operate in conjunction with each other to perform the mixing required. The location and arrangement of the various parts of the apparatus, therefore, are matters of detail depending upon circumstances and the situation in which the apparatus is to operate and are not matters vital to my invention.

As shown in Fig. 3, I prefer to embody in this apparatus an agitating device in the bottom of the case 1 and below the lower end of the gate 4:, by means of which the material to be fed to the delivery device will be agitated and thus caused to feed forward certainly and evenly to said delivery device. This agitator may be of any desired con struction. I have illustrated it as composed of a shaft S, having arms or wings a, which revolve in the material at that point.

The delivery device proper, which constitutes the vital feature of my invention, is substantially a revolving wheel 8, having buckets 9 on its periphery, with adjustable bottoms 10, which buckets are adapted to lift the material from the receptacle into which it is fed and carry it over and discharge it through the egress-opening, whence it is conveyed away to the point to which it is destined. As will be readily understood, these buckets are of varying capacity, according to the positions of the bottoms therein, so that Without otherwise changing the apparatus at all any desired quantity of material can be regularly fed by this device by simply adjusting the bucket-bottoms. In the construction shown these bottoms are in the form of flat plates the surfaces of which are parallel with the bucket-tops, and they have slotted tailpieces 11, which rest on the surface of the wheelrim proper, with screws 12 passing through the slots and entering the rim; but it is obvious that this adjustability ofthe bucketbottoms may be secured by any suit-able means desired without departing from my invention, although I consider the slotted tailpiece and screw illustrated as a simple and desirable means. In the sectional ,view, Fig. 3, I have shown one of these bucket-bottoms nearly level with the top of the bucket, so that the capacity of the bucket would he very slight. Another one I have shown about midway the bucket, which would provide for about half capacity, While a third is adjusted to near the bot-tom of the bucket, thus showing substantially its largest capacity. I have illustrated the bucket-bottoms in these several positions in order to show said adjustment-s; but of course when the machine is arranged for actual use the bucket-bottoms on each delivery device should be adjusted to the same point. By having the sides of the buckets and the surfaces of the bottoms extend tangentially, as shown, the bucket is enabled to enter the material at an angle, thus relieving the strain and power required, and a most ready form of discharge is also provided.

In the handling of such material as flour, the particles of which are apt to adhere together, so that the buckets in some cases might be heaped and thus caused to deliver unequally, it is desirable to providemeans for removing the surplus material, so that the buckets may in all cases be only level full. I have therefore provided the scraper13,which hangs at a suitable point in the casing on a pivot 14 and which rests upon the surface of the delivery device as it revolves. In order to provide a suitable track for this delivery device, the sides of the buckets are extended rearwardly as well as forwardly, so that the scraper may not drop too suddenly after passing a bucket, and in order that there shall not be too much wear on this scraper I provide small antifriction-trucks 15, which rest on the tracks thus provided. It will be understood that this rearward extension of the bucket structures, while it leaves a partiallyinclosed opening, has no effect upon the delivery of the material, as any material which may pass in between these sides will inevitably fall out as soon as in the revolution of the device it reaches the point whereits gravity will overcome its friction on the contactin g surfaces.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in anadjustable material-delivering apparatus, of a suitable casing having an ingress and an egress opening, a revoluble delivering device mounted therein having buckets mounted thereon, each of said buckets being formed of an open-ended casing having a sliding bottom mounted therein, the plane of said open end extending tangentially to the surface of the revoluble structure, and the front surface of said bottom also extending tangentially to said surface, said bottom being formed to conform to and slide upon said surface and provided with a rearwardly extending tailpiece engaging with a set-screw foradjustment, substantially as set forth.

2. In a material-delivering device, the combination with the casing having a suitable inlet and outlet, of a revolving wheel or cylinder therein having buckets thereon each of which comprises a suitable casing having an open front end and sides which extend both forwardly and rearwardly at an angle to the surface of the cylinder, an adjustable bottomthereto, and a scraper mounted outside the periphery of the wheel and adapted to ride on said sides of the buckets, substantially as set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, at Indianapolis, Indiana, this 23d day of October, A. D..1900.

JAMES B. DOBSON. [L. s]

Witnesses:

CHESTER BRADFORD, JAMES A. WALSH. 

